Assumptions that a people would “rise up” against a certain injustice or power abuse. Not the last one, but surely, this next one will be enough to make them revolt. Or the assumption that they would send the dictator packing if only they knew a certain scandalous thing about him.
These assumptions are wrong. For one thing “people” may already know. They may even know more than you do about their dictator’s thievery and power abuse. It is just that they can not do anything. The whole problem with autocracy is that there is nothing the ruled can do to impact upon the ruler. They can’t make the government change course by disapproving (i.e. public opinion), they can not make the government change course by protesting. They most certainly cannot punish a dictator. There is no accountability. In this situation knowing about scandals is simply just painful, there is nothing you can do about them. Your outrage only hurts you, never the dictator, so getting rid of the outrage out of sheer mental self-defense appears to be only viable path. So people try not to hear about the scandal, they try to avoid acknowledging it (if others don’t know that you know, you are not forced to express an opinion and no one knows you are a coward) and when nothing else works, they try to change their minds about it.
via mwbp
